It's not yoga, it's penance

[annuin]

Today's yoga session was even more punishing than Wednesday's Kyokushin class which was already punishing because we did about 3-4 times more push-ups than usual thanks to a different sempai. The sempai was also a lot harder to understand, and at the end of the class when they recite this little Kyokushin speech thing, I thought he was speaking in Japanese until I managed to pick out the stray English word. The latter part of the class the white belts got instruction from the sempai who's taught the previous 3 classes we took, and that was nice... nice to have someone who you know who also knows where you are progress wise.

It was a lot hotter in yoga class today, 109F with humidity upwards of 50%, which made it close to unbearable really. I managed to get through the first half of the class okay, which is standing poses, but I really had issues getting through the last 45 minutes of class, and had to sit out a few of the ground poses. Funny the difference a few degrees and some extra humidity makes. The previous 2 classes we've had have all been 100+ and all relatively humid, but this was hotter than we'd dealt with, and most people commented that it hadn't been quite that hot in some time.

I didn't get dizzy during the class, but it was just kind of hard to breath and you just felt like you were overheating (which we probably were). PreZ also was having overheating issues, as were other people in the class. A number of people left earlier, though I'm not sure if that was due to the fact it was hotter than usual. I know one person at least had to leave earlier anyway.

Had dinner at Applebees on the way back from class. It was good, but a lot of food. Came home and had a nice hot shower, washed my hair and curled up on the couch to watch Touching Evil with a hot cup of double bergamot earl grey tea. I'm currently nursing a headache, probably dehydration related, even though I drank plenty during and after the yoga class. I'm still imbibing plenty of fluids along with some Aleve to take the edge off the headache.

Tomorrow Tom and Karen are coming by sometime in the afternoon which should be good. At least going to bed early tonight (I'm knackered) will mean I'm up on time tomorrow which is good as I have a few residual things to clean up around the apartment, and some cooking/food prep/baking I also wanted to do... soup, fruit salad and cookies. Tom and PreZ will probably get in some UT2004 gaming as well... I'm sure Karen and I will hear the occasional snippets of stuff during game play... "die you glowing blue bitch" was the highpoint last time they were gaming together while we were talking in the living room. Ah, boys... :)

Comments

[lunamoth42.livejournal.com]

Regarding Bikrahm yoga class: If you're allowed to leave the room and come back in again, I suggest taking a moment to visit the restroom and run cool water on the crook of your elbow. It lowers the core body temp without shocking you, which could lead to a) nausea or b) passing out. Also, it's not a great idea to drink ice cold water during class due to the nerve that runs down behind your throat which relates directly to your heart and can thus cause an abrupt drop in your blood pressure.

I quit doing it after a year, personally. The teachers were a *little* cultish about the whole thing.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

We never take ice cold water to class. Mostly we fill a Brita sports bottle sometime before leaving the house (which is at least 30 mins before class), so it's 'tap cold' at best, and heading onto a more room temperature. I know that ice cold water in heat is bad, it's a shock to the system, and why they also recommend against iced drinks during hot summers.

As for cultish... they do a set regime each class, and they get the running dialogue from the Bikram teacher school... so in that aspect I can see why it does come across as that, because they don't really get to deviate from the class structure.

Ah well... we'll keep it up for a while and see how we go. I think for me personally one of the things to remember is rehydrating properly beforehand especially.

[lunamoth42.livejournal.com]

Well, by cultish, I should have clarified: if we missed a class or two, the teachers wanted to know why. I recall when I got sick, we missed class for a month and we actually got a postcard with a handwritten note, wondering why we had stopped showing up for class and urging us to please come back. And we were on a pay-as-you-go basis, so it wasn't as though money was going to waste or something. This behaviour happened a lot and started to freak me out.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can imagine that being a bit disconcerting.

We've only been to three classes so far, Friday evenings 3 weeks running (so much for our twice a week schedule at the moment), and we haven't run into that yet.